Toyota Struggling to Keep Up with Prius C Demand

Despite its insufferable commercials in the US, the Prius C is a certified hit both in America and Japan, and Toyota is struggling to keep up with demand. 

As we reported earlier, Toyota sold nearly 10,000 Prius Cs before it had been on sale for a full month in the US. However, due to high demand in Japan too, Toyota had only allocated 6,000 Prius Cs a month for the US for the next several months. 

The Prius C is named the Aqua in Japan and went on sale in December, 2011. There is already a backlog of 120,000 orders in Japan that need to be delivered. Due to the poor exchange rate, Toyota has prioritized Japanese sales over exports for the time being. 

To deal with the problem, Toyota will stop producing the Ractis hatchback at the Iwate factory where the Prius C is made. This will increase the production capacity, but Toyota will not reveal by how much. 

The original plan for Prius C production was that the Iwate factory would make 240,000 of them a year. The factory has already been expanded to build 360,000 a year, but only 20% of them will be exported - about 72,000. 

This should not have any effect on the Yaris Hybrid in Europe despite it being based on the Aqua/Prius C. It will be built at the Valenciennes factory in France.

"Production does not start till next month [on the Yaris Hybrid], and it is to early to comment regarding any supply issues however European market is much smaller than combined Japan/US. Would not therefore anticipate any supply issues at this stage based on this," said David Crouch, a Toyota UK PR representative.

Source: Automotive News